I have been a loyal BOA customer for over 10 years. Until recently, I couldn't say enough nice things about the bank. I even had a favorable review of BOA published in our student newspaper while I was in college that got the attention of a regional BOA representative, who wrote me a personal thank-you letter and granted me a year of free services.
Then earlier this week I got socked with nearly $200 in overdraft fees when funds I had order a transfer on were in limbo between two accounts, either of which would have covered the transactions. I had two accounts with BOA - a checking account and a general credit line that was tied to the checking account for overdraft protection. About a week ago I temporarily maxed out the credit line, borrowing $500 on the credit line as a short-term loan to myself. Several days ago, with about $800 in my checking account, I decided to pay off that balance, ordering an online funds transfer of $500 from my BOA checking account to my BOA credit line. That $500 was immediately subtracted from my checking account, but was NOT immediately applied to my credit line. A day or so later my online balance was still positive when I deposited a check into my checking account. However, because I made the ATM deposit after 3PM, the funds from that deposit were not available until the next day, and I was socked with a $33 fee for each transaction that came through that night.
But here is the pure irony of it all: by subtracting the transfer funds from my BOA checking account and not immediately crediting my overdraft account, that $500 was not available to EITHER account. Otherwise, I would have either had enough money in checking to cover the transactions, and avoided any fees — OR — if they had immediately applied my $500 transfer to my credit line, I would have had enough credit to cover the transactions that way. However, my $500 was in limbo between two BOA accounts, so neither account was available to cover the transactions.
I have gone over this at length with BOA on the phone, and they refuse to refund or reduce the fees.
This practice is completely deceptive. Even if this were legal in a technical sense, what about customer service?
Today I have already begun the process of switching to another bank. I really believe that if anyone higher than a telephone rep took the time to look at the facts in this case, they would immediately refund those fees. However, the phone reps are trained to be very headstrong, and are only trained in the technical details of the rules, rather than the judicious application thereof.
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